TD highlights "unjustifiable" €54 rise in electricity bills from Thursday

A west of Ireland TD has said it's "completely unjustifiable" that electricity bills will jump by €54 a year from Thursday of this week in order to subsidise renewable electricity.

Deputy Denis Naughten, a former Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, said the rise in costs was coming into effect as a result of a decision taken during the summer by the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU).

He said that, from October 1, annual electricity bills would go up by €54, under the Public Service Obligation (PSO), in order to subsidise the cost of generating renewable electricity, mainly from wind.

“Hidden in the detail is the fact that in the next 12 months the CRU expects that 83MW less renewable electricity will be generated, which would be enough to power 44,000 homes with green electricity,” said the Roscommon-Galway TD.

"Also hidden in the decision by the regulator is the reduction in the PSO for peat fired electricity, which should have seen electricity bills fall by €4 a year, instead of jump by €54 a year.

"So even though electricity customers are no longer paying for the burning of peat in power stations, the levy is set to increase by 140%, yet this will subsidise the generation of electricity for 44,000 less homes over the next 12 months."

He said "this perverse twist to the hike in electricity bills" needs to be explained "in detail" by the regulator, and he has called for the CRU to appear before the Dáil Committee on Climate Action "to explain why families are facing such hikes."